Word 2002 - Cannot set word 2002 to open .doc file by default on V

[Amber Computers]

I have installed Word 2002 onto a Vista pc and it has not set Word 2002 to
open .doc files by default. The file association menu does not show
WINWORD.EXE as an option. Normaly you can browse to WINWORD.exe and set the
association manually, but this simply does not work (WINWORD.EXE never
appears as an option in the file association menu). The only way to open .doc
files is to open the Word application first. There are no other Office apps
or versions of Word installed on the PC.

 

[Terry Farrell]

Run Word (or Office ) setup and choose the Repair option.

 

[Amber Computers]

Thanks for your reply. I forgot to mention that the repair option does not
fix the problem (I have installed all the latest windows updates as well.

 

[Terry Farrell]

Was Word (Office?) installed logged in as Administrator (not someone with
Admin privileges but actually as Administrator)? It's either that or some
malevolent third party utility is blocking Vista from changing the registry.

Terry

 

[Amber Computers]

Hello,

This is what I did to eventually solve the problem. I logged on with the
Administrator account and looked at what the registry settings were for .doc
and then changed these settings for the user having the problems as follows:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER-Software-Microsoft-CurrentVersion-Explorer-FileExts-.doc

Key OpenWithList Name Data
a WINWORD.EXE MRUList a

OpenWithProgids Word.Document.8 0 0 0 0

UserChoice Deleted this Key.

 

[Amber Computers]

Sorry this should read clearer now.

HKEY_CURRENT_USER-Software-Microsoft-CurrentVersion-Explorer-FileExts-.doc

Key Name Data

OpenWithList a WINWORD.EXE
MRUList a

OpenWithProgids Word.Document.8 0 0 0 0

UserChoice Deleted this Key

 

[Terry Farrell]

It's amazing that the Repair function didn't overwrite that entry. Well
found. By now I would have created a new user profile!

Terry